FEBRUARY 33 



decide, as the result of the absence from the Euxine 

 basin of certain animals which act as scavengers in 

 other seas. Creatures dying in the upper and life- 

 bearing stratum of water, and carcasses falling into the 

 sea or floating down the rivers, sink into the depths 

 and speedily generate these poisonous gases. The 

 Black Sea, therefore, presents the spectacle, probably 

 unique in our globe, of an immense mass of salt water, 

 sustaining abundant life in a comparatively thin upper 

 layer, suspended above a profound and silent chamber 

 of death. 



A good deal of fresh light has been thrown of 

 late years upon the habits and propensities .^ Ben 

 of certain species of birds, and there can be ficiai and 

 no doubt that knowledge about them is Birds z&ILe - 

 both more general and more accurate than 

 it was a quarter of a century ago. It is the exception 

 nowadays to hear of the insectivorous nightjar being 

 persecuted in England in the preposterous belief, 

 almost universally prevalent since the days of Aristotle 

 and Pliny, that it sucks the milk of cows and goats ; 

 or of the equally harmless yellow bunting being caught 

 and tormented to death because of the disgraceful 

 tradition, long current in southern Scotland, that this 

 delightful and wholly innocuous bird is of the devil's 

 special brood, intent upon disseminating disease among 

 human beings and cattle. It is good to get rid of such 

 myths as these, which are equally discreditable to our 

 c 



